Urges Stockholders to Protect Their Investment by Voting “FOR” Each
of Rent-A-Center’s Highly Qualified Director Nominees on the WHITE Proxy
Card

May 15, 2017 09:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time

PLANO, Texas--(EON: Enhanced Online News)--Rent-A-Center, Inc. (NASDAQ/NGS:RCII) (“Rent-A-Center” or the
“Company”), the nation's largest rent-to-own operator, todaymailed
a letter to its stockholders in connection with its 2017 Annual Meeting
of Stockholders to be held on June 8, 2017.

Rent-A-Center’s letter to stockholders and other materials regarding the
Board's recommendation for the 2017 Annual Meeting of Stockholders can
be found at http://investor.rentacenter.com.

The full text of the letter is below:

Dear Rent-A-Center Stockholder,

As our 2017 Annual Meeting of Stockholders approaches on June 8, 2017,
we wanted to encourage you to vote for the superior slate of directors
nominated by the Rent-A-Center Board of Directors. As you know, hedge
fund Engaged Capital, LLC (“Engaged Capital”) has nominated a dissident
slate of director nominees to replace three of your highly-accomplished
and experienced directors. If elected, we believe Engaged Capital’s
nominees would adversely affect your investment and the future of
Rent-A-Center.

Currently, you are represented by a Board of Directors that is
experienced and committed to acting in the best interests of ALL Rent-A-Centerstockholders. The Rent-A-Center Board is composed of seven
highly-qualified directors, a majority of whom are independent. The
Board has been carefully constructed to have strong retail, finance,
marketing, technology, strategic planning and C-suite expertise, all of
which are critical to overseeing the nation’s leading rent-to-own
retailer, particularly while executing an operational turnaround.

In contrast, Engaged Capital’s nominees lack both the experience and
expertise needed to lead Rent-A-Center towards future growth and
profitability. Further, Engaged Capital’s hand-picked nominees will be
first and foremost loyal to Engaged Capital and will pursue its agenda
to run a sale process, however value destructive it may be for long-term
stockholders.

We urge you to protect your investment in Rent-A-Center by rejecting
Engaged Capital’s nominees and voting “FOR” all three of the
Company’s experienced and highly-qualified director candidates - Mark
E. Speese, Jeffery M. Jackson and Leonard H. Roberts - on the WHITE
proxy card TODAY.

ENGAGED CAPITAL’S DIRECTOR NOMINEES DO NOT BRING INCREMENTAL
EXPERTISE OR EXPERIENCE TO THE RENT-A-CENTER BOARD

In stark contrast to Rent-A-Center’s three highly-qualified and
experienced nominees, Engaged Capital’s nominees lack the necessary and
relevant experience to shape the Company’s strategy. Engaged Capital’s
nominees add no incremental skills to the current Board and generally
lack the management and retailing experience required to best serve
Rent-A-Center stockholders.

We believe the election of Engaged Capital’s nominees would limit the
value creation opportunity for all Rent-A-Center stockholders and
adversely affect the execution of the strategic plan underway to enhance
value.

THE BOARD UNANIMOUSLY RECOMMENDS STOCKHOLDERS SUPPORT RENT-A-CENTER
ON ITS PATH TO GROWTH AND PROFITABILITY AND VOTE “FOR” ITS
THREE HIGHLY-QUALIFIED NOMINEES

Engaged Capital’s nominees do not compare to our compelling slate.
Rent-A-Center’s three directors up for re-election at the 2017 Annual
Meeting – Mark E. Speese, Jeffery M. Jackson and Leonard H. Roberts
– are highly experienced, actively engaged and committed to acting in
the best interests of the Company and ALL of its stockholders.

As a founder of the Company, Mr. Speese brings to the Board leadership,
unparalleled knowledge of the Rent-A-Center business and the rent-to-own
industry, extensive operations experience, and a strong strategic vision
for Rent-A-Center. As a testament to his commitment to Rent-A-Center and
confidence in the Company’s strategic plan to create stockholder value,
Mr. Speese purchased an additional $1.1 million worth of shares in
Rent-A-Center on May 10, 2017. Today, Mr. Speese owns approximately
2.67% of the Company’s stock, making him the largest individual holder,
and further demonstrating his alignment with the interests of ALL
stockholders.

Mr. Jackson adds comprehensive involvement in emerging technological
trends, including those in data analytics and mobile marketing and
distribution, as well as in enterprise software in SaaS products and
large technological transformations. Mr. Jackson also brings deep
financial expertise, including his prior experience as Chief Financial
Officer of Sabre and his service as chairman of our Audit & Risk
Management Committee. Mr. Roberts’ experience as a Chief Executive
Officer of several multi-unit retail companies brings directly relevant
experience and a unique perspective in retail marketing to our Board, as
well as significant financial expertise. Mr. Roberts serves as the
chairman of our Compensation Committee, which received the best possible
score from Institutional Shareholder Services for aligning executive
compensation policies with the long-term interests of shareholders.

With their collective knowledge of the business and retail industry,
comprehensive operational and strategically-oriented experience, and
extensive CEO and governance experience, we believe Rent-A-Center’s
Board nominees are well-positioned and qualified to drive a turnaround
of the business and deliver long-term value. Together with the full
Board, these directors have taken decisive actions to drive growth,
improve profitability and maximize value for ALL Rent-A-Center
stockholders, unlike the Engaged Capital nominees that answer to only
one stockholder. We remain confident in the Board’s continued ability to
help oversee the strategic direction of the Company.

RENT-A-CENTER’S BOARD AND MANAGEMENT REPRESENT THE BEST PATH FORWARD TO
DRIVE VALUE FOR ALL STOCKHOLDERS

The comprehensive strategic plan outlined by Rent-A-Center’s Board and
management team represents a compelling long-term value creation
opportunity for ALL stockholders. The Board and management team
are confident that the Company’s slate of nominees is better qualified
to lead the strategic direction and execute on the strategic plan than
Engaged Capital’s nominees.

Your Board unanimously recommends that stockholders vote “FOR”
Rent-A-Center’s three highly-qualified candidates – Mark E. Speese,
Jeffery M. Jackson and Leonard H. Roberts – for the three Class II
Director positions to be elected at the Company’s Annual Meeting, which
is a vote in favor of a Board that is committed to acting in your best
interests.

We urge you to protect the value of your investment and disregard
Engaged Capital’s self-serving campaign by simply discarding any Blue
proxy card that you may receive from Engaged Capital. Instead, please
use the enclosed WHITE proxy card to vote “FOR” your
Board’s nominees TODAY – by signing, dating and returning the WHITE
proxy card in the postage-paid envelope provided.

Thank you for your continued support.

The Rent-A-Center Board of Directors:

Mark E. Speese

Michael J. Gade

Jeffery M. Jackson

J.V. Lentell

Steven L. Pepper

Leonard H. Roberts

Rishi Garg

If you have any questions, or need assistance votingyour WHITE
proxy card, please contact:

A rent-to-own industry leader, Plano, Texas-based, Rent-A-Center, Inc.,
is focused on improving the quality of life for its customers by
providing them the opportunity to obtain ownership of high-quality,
durable products such as consumer electronics, appliances, computers,
furniture and accessories, under flexible rental purchase agreements
with no long-term obligation. Rent-A-Center Franchising International,
Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company, is a national franchiser
of approximately 230 rent-to-own stores operating under the trade names
of "Rent-A-Center," "ColorTyme," and "RimTyme."

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release and the guidance above contain forward-looking
statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Such forward-looking
statements generally can be identified by the use of forward-looking
terminology such as "may," "will," "expect," "intend," "could,"
"estimate," "should," "anticipate," "believe," or “confident,” or the
negative thereof or variations thereon or similar terminology. The
Company believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking
statements are accurate. However, there can be no assurance that such
expectations will occur. The Company's actual future performance could
differ materially from such statements. Factors that could cause or
contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to: the
general strength of the economy and other economic conditions affecting
consumer preferences and spending; factors affecting the disposable
income available to the Company's current and potential customers;
changes in the unemployment rate; difficulties encountered in improving
the financial and operational performance of the Company's business
segments; the Company’s chief executive officer and chief financial
officer transitions, including the Company’s ability to effectively
operate and execute its strategies during the interim period and
difficulties or delays in identifying and/or attracting a permanent
chief financial officer with the required level of experience and
expertise; failure to manage the Company's store labor and other store
expenses; the Company’s ability to develop and successfully execute
strategic initiatives; disruptions, including capacity-related outages,
caused by the implementation and operation of the Company's new store
information management system, and its transition to more-readily
scalable, “cloud-based” solutions; the Company's ability to develop and
successfully implement digital or E-commerce capabilities, including
mobile applications; disruptions in the Company's supply chain;
limitations of, or disruptions in, the Company's distribution network;
rapid inflation or deflation in the prices of the Company's products;
the Company's ability to execute and the effectiveness of a store
consolidation, including the Company's ability to retain the revenue
from customer accounts merged into another store location as a result of
a store consolidation; the Company's available cash flow; the Company's
ability to identify and successfully market products and services that
appeal to its customer demographic; consumer preferences and perceptions
of the Company's brand; uncertainties regarding the ability to open new
locations; the Company's ability to acquire additional stores or
customer accounts on favorable terms; the Company's ability to control
costs and increase profitability; the Company's ability to retain the
revenue associated with acquired customer accounts and enhance the
performance of acquired stores; the Company's ability to enter into new
and collect on its rental or lease purchase agreements; the passage of
legislation adversely affecting the Rent-to-Own industry; the Company's
compliance with applicable statutes or regulations governing its
transactions; changes in interest rates; adverse changes in the economic
conditions of the industries, countries or markets that the Company
serves; information technology and data security costs; the impact of
any breaches in data security or other disturbances to the Company's
information technology and other networks and the Company's ability to
protect the integrity and security of individually identifiable data of
its customers and employees; changes in the Company's stock price, the
number of shares of common stock that it may or may not repurchase, and
future dividends, if any; changes in estimates relating to
self-insurance liabilities and income tax and litigation reserves;
changes in the Company's effective tax rate; fluctuations in foreign
currency exchange rates; the Company's ability to maintain an effective
system of internal controls; the resolution of the Company's litigation;
and the other risks detailed from time to time in the Company's SEC
reports, including but not limited to, its Annual Report on Form 10-K
for the year ended December 31, 2016, and its Quarterly Report on Form
10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2017. You are cautioned not to
place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak
only as of the date of this press release. Except as required by law,
the Company is not obligated to publicly release any revisions to these
forward-looking statements to reflect the events or circumstances after
the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

Additional Information and Where to Find It

The Company, its directors, executive officers and other employees may
be deemed to be participants in the solicitation of proxies from the
Company’s stockholders in connection with the matters to be considered
at Rent-A-Center’s 2017 Annual Meeting. On April 27, 2017, the Company
filed its definitive proxy statement (as it may be amended from time to
time, the “Proxy Statement”) and definitive form of WHITE
proxy card with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”)
with respect to its 2017 Annual Meeting. The Company’s stockholders
are strongly encouraged to read the Proxy Statement, the accompanying WHITE
proxy card and other documents filed with the SEC carefully and in their
entirety when they become available because they will contain important
information. Additional information regarding the identity of
participants, and their direct or indirect interests (by security
holdings or otherwise) is set forth in the Proxy Statement. Stockholders
can obtain the Proxy Statement, any amendments or supplements to the
Proxy Statement and other documents filed by the Company with the SEC
free of charge at the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov.
Copies also will be available free of charge at the Company’s website at www.rentacenter.com,
by contacting the Company’s Investor Relations at 972-801-1100 or by
contacting the Company’s proxy solicitor, Okapi Partners LLC, toll free
at 1-877-259-6290.

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